


Understrike

by LC_Rodriguez



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Detective Noir, F/F, Gen, Police Procedural, Post-Time Skip, Science Fiction, Slow Build, Suicidal Thoughts, Urban Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-14 21:13:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5759038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LC_Rodriguez/pseuds/LC_Rodriguez
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 years later, Alphys works with a new engineering team to research magic and technology. After exposing herself to an electric storm, Alphys's oldest memories and timespace phenomena resurface in her dreams. With a small flicker of hope, Sans invites her to continue an old investigation, and Alphys uses the chance to tie up some loose ends. Meanwhile, a now teenaged Frisk and Undyne will face humanity's biggest flaws and the moral troubles that come with them in their duties, especially as an unknown, ambitious serial killer begins to formulate a plan...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prelude To a Natural Mystery

**Author's Note:**

> Track for this story: The Lightning Strike by Snow Patrol

_A long time ago, humans had sealed monsters underground beneath Mt. Ebott with a magic spell after war broke out between both species. With no monsters left to fight, the humans began to turn against each other. Blinded with power and killing intent, ‘witches’ had struck humanity with death and bloodshed using their magic, before they were eventually executed for their crimes. The humans soon decided that the practice of magic for combat is too dangerous for their powerful souls, and so they abandoned it altogether, choosing to embrace technology instead._

_One day, a child had wandered into Mt. Ebott, and, through their powerful kindness and determination, shattered the barrier and let the monsters free. After humanity reminded themselves of the crimes of their ancestors, several humans and monsters decided to mend their relationship. They put their combined talents to use, and began to practice a new era for man and monsterkind…_

 

_**5 years later…** _

 

Alphys pulled the curtains from the window in their apartment and watched the electric storm outside. She dimmed the glass with her breath while little droplets of rain slid down from it. Early in the morning, it was decidedly not a beautiful day outside. Rain was pouring, thunder was booming, lightning was striking the horizon. On days like these, the humans paid no mind, they’d just walk outside carrying umbrellas while doing mundane activities. They were very much used to the surface. Some monsters thought the end of the world was imminent every time this happened, and would opt to stay inside and cower.

Not her. While she would prefer staying warm inside and watch more human entertainment other than anime, she had work to do. As she did for the past few years since losing her job as a Royal Scientist. Today, it’s the right time to test out something she wanted to try for years by herself, but could never have enough time and power to do so. If she started early, she could still make it to work and not be late.

Alphys pulled away from the window and headed to the closet to reach for her raincoat. She had already been dressed in a black turtleneck and indigo trousers, packed her work bag, and finished a toast left by Undyne before she would end up running out with it on her mouth. She hastily put the raincoat on, having some trouble putting her limbs on the arm holes and silently cursed herself. When she pulled her head to the hood, she swatted the stiff fabric of the coat and pushed it down, trying to cover herself as much as she could. With a soft pant, she ran to her and Undyne’s room, and lay down into the floor to reach under the bed. With a grunt, she pulled out a fairly long lightning rod. She panted again as she grabbed for her work bag and swung the strap over her shoulder. She tried to exit the apartment and close it with the rod clutched in one hand, cursing herself for almost dropping it a few times and dragging it across the floor occasionally.

Alphys grunted in annoyance as she tried to pick up the rod with both hands to keep it steady. She awkwardly stepped across the hallway to the other apartments and headed downstairs. She decided not to take the elevator for understandable reasons. She angled the rod up to keep it from dragging across the stairs as she descended in a rush, and cursed herself again when she almost dropped it down and the strap from her work bag was slipping from her shoulder. She almost made it to the door exiting the building on the path to the parking lot when she did end up dropping both. She dusted off her hands and picked up the bag and the rod. At least as it was early in the morning and practically no one was around to see that. The puzzling looks she received from humans and monsters alike when she first dragged the thing in were still in her mind.

She headed out straight into the heavy rain. Her hood could barely conceal her head with her spikes pushing it back, leaving a good chunk of her face exposed to the rain, and she found herself trying to snort some of the water out from her nostrils and trying to see out of her wet glasses. It’s a good thing she didn’t have any hair. Alphys tried clutching the bag closer to her to keep it from getting too wet. She walked into her simple compact car and placed the rod into the trunk. She didn’t take off her coat as she climbed onto the car, placed her bag in the passenger seat, and started it. Briefly looking back to see that the rod wouldn’t crash out of any of the windows, she drove out of the parking lot and into the road. She headed west, where the sun had set shortly after they were freed.

Alphys exited the apartment complex and drove out downtown. Sometimes, she pried her eyes away from the road to look at some of the pedestrians, the buildings, the shops, the neon signs, and the streetlights. She watched some humans stand around in coats next to the streetlights, looking as if they were waiting for something (probably for the light to change). Maybe at least one of them was a hard-boiled detective. At this point, she imagined blues jazz music playing in the ‘background,’ just like in those movies. If only she was driving around in a cooler car instead, she would be driving with gusto. But she digressed, and focused on her task.

She eventually reached her destination. Her car had been parked at the edge of the city limits, with a empty hill up to the side of the road that led to the rest of the country. By that time, she was climbing the hill under the rain with the rod clutched in her hands. By the time she reached the top, Alphys turned around to take a breather and looked up at the thunderous, overcast sky. She looked over at the bright city of Immetropolis, and ahead of it, a dark silhouette of Mt. Ebott loomed far away, its image blurred by the rain and the city lights.

With a deep breath, Alphys brought the rod upwards, and swiftly jammed it into the ground. She twisted and drove the rod deeper into the ground, and gently tugged it to make sure it was secure. She blew out some air and held on to the rod as she waited, watching the electric-filled clouds above. She tried to pull her hood closer to her face as she sneezed water out. Then she waited.

One of her resolutions for the surface had been gaining better health. Undyne and Papyrus continued her training program, and she started nourishing herself properly with things other than instant noodles, soda, and chips. Indeed, she had lost a few pounds, she felt stronger than before, and she started feeling better about herself. But a worry still lingered in her mind. All her monster friends could do magic near flawlessly. Alphys could barely shoot any bullets, let alone get her magic to work like the others’. She always had difficulty. Most of the time, she had to rely on her skills and technology. She’d have to be put in an apocalyptic situation for her magic to even work, but it’s not like she would remember something like that.

Alphys honestly just wanted more magical energy. She hoped that didn’t sound too ambitious. Still, she felt almost determined to gain more magical strength for once in her life. She believed the surface would enrich her. That’s probably why she was doing this, she thought to herself. It was crazy. It was like a cartoon, like a western one, which a human pointed out when she first carried the rod to the apartment when she tried to explain herself.

But nothing was happening. She should’ve guessed that western cartoons were also not real. She held on to the rod, getting a bit more impatient, but she feared quitting too soon, in case a lightning strike did happen here and she wasn’t there to get the chance.

Perhaps she needed more than conductivity to induce a lighting strike, or simply produce high amounts of electric energy in that specific spot. Maybe, if she can use some magical electromagnetism, she could create a charge powerful enough to actively attract the charge among the clouds, and from there, form a large electric current between ground and sky. Then, with the rest of her magic, she could collect the electric energy and enhance her powers… Truthfully, even Sans was a better physicist than she was, and with her track record back underground, she could easily cause some major damage… such worries still plagued her life even as a reputable magic engineer.

With cautious optimism, she quickly rubbed her hands together, trying to muster an electric charge with the small amount of magic she had. She slowly separated her hands, and watched tiny, magical electric currents surging between her palms. They passed by quickly, they were weak, there was not a lot of voltage, and would disappear easily as her hands eventually cooled down. Meaning she had to move quick.

With her charged hands, she gripped the rod, attempting to use it as her conductor. She kept rubbing her hands alongside the rod to preserve the current, and trying to increase the voltage. She started concentrating harder, using her magic to move electrons in the hopes of creating some kind of EM field. She quickly glanced up and saw no visible effect it had on the stormy clouds. She tried harder, but was quickly starting to become tired. Was there really not enough? Was this really all she could do? She was already just wasting more of her energy.

Frustrated, Alphys took a deep, jagged breath and let go of the rod, leaving it with no charge and wasting her own. She was already exhausted. She wiped her forehead, kept breathing heavily, and looked up at the sky in defeat, accepting that the nature of the surface has bested her once more. She snorted out more water, and sighed. She looked down at the rod again, preparing to pick it up and dispose of it.

A lighting strike occurs next to the rod, where Alphys stood. She yelled and tumbled to the ground as a powerful shock ran through her.

A minute later, she scrambled to get back up, with some mild vertigo and fright, and struggling to get balanced again due to her trembling. After it passes and Alphys stood more calmly, her feet began to tap the ground quickly and she breathed in a fast pace, feeling highly re-energized, if agitated, from the shock. She felt a large amount of heat inside her body (was she glowing and she couldn’t see it?), but she had no noticeable burns or even any kind of injury, her only discomfort at the moment being some temporary tinnitus from the loud thunder. Her car’s alarm had been set off, that much she could hear.

With this evidence, Alphys made a deduction; she is invulnerable to electric shocks, and subsequently, electric attacks. Now the possibility still rested on her having absorbed the electricity and powered up her magic, as she intended to begin with. She took another deep breath in anticipation, and she started rubbing her palms again rapidly. She swore she saw some kind of spark fly out after her hands heated up, and heard a buzz. Curiously, she looked closer and opened her palms. She stumbled back in surprise when she saw a large, bright, high-voltage current that almost took up the whole space between her hands and an incredibly loud crack emitted from it. She couldn’t control the massive current as she fell on her bottom, and her hands shot out a lighting ball, flying out into the air for several minutes, before vanishing in a silent explosion and spreading the smaller currents onto the air like an electric firework.

Alphys watched the brief light show in awe for several moments. Then, she giggled and whooped to herself, happy that she managed to make it work. She didn’t care that she probably lost some amount of electric power from doing that and ran back to her car excitedly, leaving the rod behind. She sat down on the driver’s seat, also not caring she was still soaked wet. She moved over to find her keys in her bag… and they floated over and stuck to her hand. She let out a curious laugh, realizing her magnetic powers improved as well. She inserted the key to start the car.

Suddenly, Alphys winced and held the side of her head. Her hearing seemed more sensitive again, felt pins and needles, and felt her vision grow blurry even with her glasses. She rubbed at her temple gently and blinked the bright lighting away, appropriately fearing that the shock might have actually done something to her to induce a sudden migraine. However, the pain didn’t last very long, and quickly began to subside. Alphys sighed, relieved she didn’t have to skip work or call “the police” to help her, but still exercised somecaution, and approached things slowly.

She started the car properly, and drove out of the hill to head to work at her new lab —with her new co-workers. Maybe things will turn out okay this time. She paid no mind to the weird, sudden migraine she just had, and promptly forgot about it minutes later.

The clouds started to part, and she could properly see the sunrise. There was nothing to worry about.


	2. John H.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some actual dialogue here so I don't have to bore you with long paragraphs... But not before I write long paragraphs anyway.
> 
> I would say sorry for not updating in two months but... I gave Toon Tower hiatuses way longer than this so. You could say I had two months off. Lol. It's funny because fans of undertale usually aren't the same fans of my other fic. It's 10:30 PM. I probably missed some edits. Okay, sorry, here's the next chapter.

Alphys reached a moderately wide building located midtown. She pulled into the half-full parking lot, realizing she might have been a little late. The building’s façade was almost pristine, with its white paint and light blue-tinted windows, yet it's form was straightforward and rectangular, with nothing standing out of place. The exception was the abstract steel sculpture that stood outside the entrance, depicting a monster soul and a human soul connected by the points in a figure-8 cross, with gear-like decorations and magical bullet-like shapes surrounding it. Alphys got out of her car and reached into her bag to pull out her lab coat, slightly wrinkled from being crammed inside. She briefly fumbled to put it on and walked towards the entrance of the new Immetropolis Research Institute of Magic and Technology.

She entered the glass double doors to enter a bright and organized reception area. The area was slightly taller and more decorative with futuristic aesthetics and Art Deco than the rest of the building, giving audiences, particularly monsters, an impression of hope towards the future. Morning sunlight filtered through the windows and brightened the white colors on the walls. A froggit leaned dangerously close to a futuristic fountain with another connected pair of souls, placed in the center of the room. Some humans browsed their phones and a whimsum looked at one of their screens, as they all sit on the lounge waiting for their next tour across the facility.

As she headed towards the facility to work, Alphys glanced at a plaque on the wall behind the reception area that read the building’s origins. The building was formerly a penitentiary, abandoned for several years and later refurbished into a scientific institute. Alphys paid no mind to it, figuring the subject matter is better for Undyne to handle. There wasn’t any need to imagine the kind of things that happened inside these walls, like, for example, certain sentences…

Alphys snapped out of those sudden thoughts. The side of her head stung slightly and her hands fidgeted more rapidly than normal. Concerned as she was, she couldn’t really afford to simply leave so she could go and calm herself down. She pressed on.

Alphys walked up to a booth, where a security guard sat. She showed them her I.D card hooked to her labcoat and they observed it closely, as per protocol, despite the guard already knowing her. They pressed a button to unlock the door next to them, and Alphys walked forward. She went through a sleek hallway brightly lit with fluorescent lights and several doors heading to some of the employee’s offices, including her own.

She entered another set of doors that led to another hallway, this time, leading her to the main engineering labs. Just as she was about to move on to enter the lab ahead, she spotted a man in glasses, a brown suit, and a mustache heading towards her from the hallway to her right. Dr. Jonathan Wright, one of the most experienced engineers of the country who had helped fund the institute, noticed Alphys as she turned to face him.

“Oh, good morning, Ms. Alphys!” He called to her with a bright smile. He stopped in front of her and brought out his hand.

Alphys smiled back at him, and greeted him. “Oh, hello, Dr. Wright!” Alphys moved over to accept the handshake. When their hands touched, Alphys gripped his rather tightly, and Wright could feel a subtle sting straight through his arm.

He pulled his hand back in slight surprise. “Quite active today, are you?” he said with a smile, unaware —or perhaps in denial— of what happened.

Alphys quickly recoiled and drew her hand back in slight shock. She quickly assumed she must have given him an electric shock― But she quickly composed herself. “OH, ah, a*hem! Hmph!” Alphys tried to hide her worry. “Um, y-yeah! Guess I’m… really excited, huh? Heh!”

Wright chuckled back politely, and changed the subject. “Well, I just want to inform you that we have that some new interns from the Immetropolis Institute of Technology that came in today. We were hoping you and your team would give them a small demonstration of what we do here.”

“Oh!” Alphys reached into her back and pulled out a tube. “I happen to have the blueprints for a robotics and soul study we’re doing. It’s really interesting, because it talks about how a soul from a certain kind of monster can bond with a possessed object more efficiently with some specific measures and circumstances, but it’s really complex stuff, so…” Alphys quickly stopped herself from ranting. Better to save her breath for the group meeting.

“Wonderful.” Wright remarked sincerely. “We’re looking forward to hearing your theories on the matter. Your team is doing wonders for all of us.”

He then left her to head towards the offices, whistling a familiar tune in the way. Alphys watched him go with a smile, then looked down at her hand. She gripped and opened it a few times, moving it around, and then blowing on it. She really couldn’t afford any more ‘issues,’ especially when handling machinery. She gave her hand a final shake, before moving ahead towards the lab she worked on.

She opened the doors to a large lab. Several human and monster workers performed maintenance on large, factory-level machinery used to create parts for robotics research, stretching out to her right. Alphys still found herself staring in awe at these creations; prior to the monsters’ arrival, these humans were determined enough to create all this technology to compensate for their absence of magic, and the monsters’ help only came just about now. She turned left and passed by some of the fences, desks, and tables used for storing parts and tools. She headed straight further to where the lab housed some rooms served for meetings, with her team waiting for her on one of the rooms.

She first knocked the door, and was greeted by a younger man in a lab coat; one of her loyal lab assistants. “Morning, Alphys,” said the human. “I just finished checking and everyone’s present and accounted for. They’re waiting for you now to start.”

“Thanks, Bolt,” she said happily as she stepped inside. “Good morning, everyone.”

The mostly-human workers stopped their conversations turned to her. Their faces brightened up, and stood up to greet her right back. Murmurs of hellos and good mornings repeated in the room, and Alphys began to feel calmer and relaxed. A taller bald man came up to her and gave her a side hug.

“Hi-Hey, Joe,” she said, almost out of breath from the impact.

“Morning, Alphys,” he said. “You look great today.”

“Yeah,” a female voice rang nearby. A woman with a hair bun approached them. “You look more awake this time.”

Alphys laughed heartily. It was then a man with a short stubble raised his hand up to greet her, without getting up from his seat but demonstrating genuine affection.

“Hey, Nicholas,” Alphys called out. She moved forward to shake his hand and almost stepped on something. A mole-like monster wearing a hard hat and a lab coat jumped up at her. “Hey, hey!” he shouted.

Alphys bent over to him. “Hi, Mack. Do you still like it here?”

“Sure do!” He exclaimed. “I know I said this a lot of times, but I hope humans are into puzzles, with some of the ideas I got!”

The ‘team,’ as Frisk called it, had a lot going for them in the few years they’ve worked together. As they kept exchanging formal greetings with each other, Alphys’s nervousness subsided near completely, and found herself gaining confidence to move on with the meeting. She almost felt the humans’ determination rubbing off on her… or maybe they were just some of the most supportive people she’d met in a long time.

“Hey,” Bolt called over. “These are the interns that came in today.” He led Alphys to a small group of human college students standing at the back of the room. Some were clearly enthusiastic, some were vaguely interested, while some others looked like they’d been forced into the internship and were more interested whatever is happening in their phones.

“Thanks, Bolt,” she repeated, more monotonously. “Hello, everyone.” Alphys greeted the interns, and some of them greet back enthusiastically while others just raised their hands and vaguely paid attention. “I am Alphys, and I’ll be giving out a demonstration of what we do on a daily basis. Now, first off, I’m just going to say that we can’t go straight to building things without proper planning, which is what we have these meetings for. We discuss theories, facts, and ideas before we get straight to inventing and working on big machines.” She directed her attention to the distracted interns. “We’ll try not to make it too boring for you, alright?” Alphys joked. Some of the interns laughed out loud, with one of them showing an interest in Alphys.

“Hi!” the intern chirped, a younger college woman wearing a bright yellow hair pin with a matching yellow key necklace, who came up to Alphys and offered her hand. “I’m Wendy Terry, and it’s such an honor to be working with you! I’m really excited to be here!”

“Well,” Alphys shook her hand. “It’s an honor to work with you as well. I’m pretty excited too.”

“I know, I’ve always wanted to work with monsters,” Wendy continued excitedly. “They look like animals, but they’re pretty cool and smart at that!”

“Um,” Alphys still kept smiling politely, while glancing awkwardly over to her coworkers, who also seemed a tad confused. She turned back to Wendy, who seemed eager for a positive answer. “Th-thank you.”

Wendy grinned and clapped her own hands. “Ha, ha, you’re welcome! Because… I was wondering…” she began to ask genuinely. “I’ve got this idea for a project with magic, so… maybe I could request to schedule something with you sometime…?”

Alphys widened her own eyes in curiosity and eagerness. “Er, yeah, sure. I think I’d like to hear that. I think it would have to be outside of work hours, though… how about a night shift the day after tomorrow?”

“Yeah! Sounds good!” Wendy exclaimed happily.

Alphys genuinely chuckled a bit to herself. Despite some of this lady’s less than stellar attitude towards monsters, she seemed to have some big positive dreams, and might not be all that bad. However, another intern seemed to react in disgust upon taking a closer look at Alphys, and went back on their phone. Others were scowling, and others seemed a bit disturbed. This time, she couldn’t hide her own disappointment, and turned herself to her side, while Wendy was distracted by her surroundings and looking at Mack with a big grin. Mack almost seemed to suspect she found him cute enough to be petted.

Alphys felt a hand on her shoulder. Nicolas Wright, Jonathan’s brother, looked concerned for her. “Um, listen Alphys,” he whispered. “I think some of these kids… might not be very respectful to you. I, uh… I can’t see myself trusting them that much, I think they might want to hurt you, out of fear.”

“Oh, come on, Nicholas,” Alphys said offhandedly. “They’re not really hurting anyone, I think I can tolerate it. Besides, they really couldn’t hurt me if they wanted.”

“But…” Nicholas sighed. “Even when they ‘can’t’ hurt you, they’ll just look for another way to harm you. They’ll hurt you with words. Heck, they probably won’t care. They would outright just go ahead and hurt you if they convinced themselves that they could get away with it… Humans ‘can’t’ hurt other humans, yet we still do it.”

Alphys looked at him uncertainly, unable to find the words to respond as she considered that possibility, and even Frisk couldn’t keep them at bay forever. She almost found herself comforted that other humans still punish those of their own who hurt innocents in some manner; she recalled this building being a former prison…

“Hey, maybe he’s got a point.” Joe intervened. “I mean, we know how our species can be like, even when we’re not really ‘threatening’ anyone. We’ll say really bad stuff to each other, and it can hurt immensely.”

“If they can’t get along with each other, how would they get along with monsters?” Katherine added somewhat bitterly. “We really need to do something about them.”

Alphys saw an air of uncomfortableness, and quickly decided rectify, pushing the bad possibilities away. “Well, I actually think we’ve got this under control. Frisk especially has it under control. And you shouldn’t beat yourselves up just for being human, you’re my friends, you’re good people, you trust me, and you don’t have to make up for the bad humans, alright?” Alphys assured. “Right, Mack?” She looked down at him.

“That’s right,” replied Mack with confidence. “You guys are kind to us because you’re kind period. And we’re not letting any bad humans treat us like dirt, we can handle ourselves.”

“Well, I sure hope so…” Bolt commented. The others then went back to sit on the table, while the interns led themselves to lean their backs against the wall.

“Anyway, guys,” Alphys announced sternly. “Now’s not the time to discuss these things. Now, I have blueprints and studies that I want to present to you.” She cleared her throat and brought her bag upwards. “So are we ready to start?” Alphys asked Katherine.

“Yep, we’re all ready,” Katherine replied, turning her head back to the interns, who began to approach the table.

“Alright then,” Alphys pulled a few tubes out of the bag, and opened its contents. She laid out a number of blueprints and some notes across the tables, and the whole team looked attentively. “Let’s get started.”

* * *

 

The meeting had gone without much trouble. Alphys had proposed a body for Napstablook, one lacking a ‘core’ that would normally allow him to bond with the body easily, as she had done with Mettaton, but the lack of a core would let him leave the body whenever he wished; Alphys then proceeded to explain in detail the mechanics of the ‘core,’ how it connects as a pseudo-soul to the whole artificial body and the compressed space allows the soul bond with it, therefore acting as the soul through. She then clarified that the process required a real ghost-type monster soul to function, and that it was proven that human souls cannot posses objects unless they manifest a strong aura of personality and magic, as were the case of monster ghosts.

A few of the interns were clearly fans of Mettaton, and they wanted to know more about his… anatomical details (luckily, she learned how to avoid the question and move on with the demonstration). Another intern vaguely mocked the team’s priority in “marketing” the MTT brand instead of making useful inventions… she would deal with them later. Overall, it wasn’t a bad day, save for that morning. Her powers never caused trouble and she didn’t have the distracting headache. All seemed well.

Alphys headed back to her office after going out for some coffee in the break room. She stretched her neck and could feel her knees crack and squeak a bit. On her way there, she felt a tap on her shoulder while opening the door to the office. She nearly jumped out of her skin and swiftly turned around, feeling some sparks within the nerves of her arms.

Bolt let her take a few breaths before saying anything. “Here’s your blueprints back,” he handed her the tube. “You left them.”

Alphys let out a relieved sigh as she took the tube.

“Thanks, Bolt,” she said in the exact same monotonous tone as before. She was genuinely grateful and didn’t dislike him, but by that time, they both knew it had become routine. She turned to head back to her office, tube and bag clutched in exhaustion.

Alphys put her bag and the tube on the ground. With a big breath, she sat on the comfy rolling chair and leaned back to feel the softness in her neck and head. She stared in content at some of the knickknacks, souvenirs, and photos of her friends adorning her desk and walls; the picture from the day they got out of the underground, a picture of their collective vacation a Caribbean forest, a picture of her and Undyne at the beach, and a recent picture taken of her friends and the team’s group shot.

She looked wistfully at that particular picture. Alphys admired how much these humans seemed to like her, appreciate her, and trust her. In the past, she never thought a monster, let alone a human, would ever trust her, after everything she did, and still was doing by the time Frisk fell to the underground and changed her whole life… These humans like her talent and her competence in mechanics like no human has seen on another, and they felt instantly attached. After all, it was right up their alley.

In some ways, she found herself identified with the humans: they depended on technology because they couldn’t use magic like other monsters did. Her own magic was weak, and didn’t work most of the time, so she had to rely on machines to express herself. She figured that her magic relied on certain elements from the surface to work better, and her earlier experiment with lightning proved that the elements were vital to her magical development. Still, she was happy with the humans and being welcomed among them. Some were not so nice, but she decided she wasn’t going to hate all of humanity because of what they did. Frisk just wanted everyone to be at peace.

She let out a deep sigh, and continued to look at the pictures. One of them stood out. She faced a framed picture of Undyne with a wide, jolly, toothy grin stood out, and Alphys glanced at it lovingly. She blushed deeply at the thought that, when she finally felt ready…

Alphys suddenly grew tense and turned back to the photograph. She picked up the frame, squinted, and leaned close to the frame’s glass reflected at her, turning it slightly and slowly. Alphys looked at it attentively, her nostrils flaring in concern. Alphys then blinked, and snorted casually, and felt almost slightly annoyed.

“…hi, Sans.”

She turned around from her seat to see Sans leaning against the doorframe, in the process of chugging the last bit of his ketchup bottle. He was still wearing his janitor’s outfit; knowing him, he probably decided to take a break from working at the school. The light from behind him casted a shadow over the front of his body, the only light from him being the white pinpricks of his sockets.

“wow, the old badass ‘addressing the presence in your room without even looking at it’ trick. you’re getting good at this.” Sans chucked the bottle behind his back off the room, producing no sound of it ever hitting the floor. He closed both his eyes and put his arms behind his head as if the doorframe was a hammock to him.

Alphys briefly considered calling security on him for that spook, but he’d just disappear as soon as the guard got there. Alphys shook her head and resumed with a ‘tch’ in her mouth. “… Actually,” Alphys pointed to the frame. “I was just looking at the reflection on my picture…”

Sans half-opened his eyes and turned his head to her. “oh, so you’re taking advantage of your surroundings? that’s really cool too. guess you like to be in the pragmatic side. working with what you’ve got.” He winked at her. “i’ve really taught you well, didn’t i?”

Alphys chuckled lightly and rolled her eyes, unsure of how to reply. She picked up a pen from a cup in her desk. Sans pulled out a toothpick and used it between the teeth of his constant smile.

“hey, don’t sweat it. you’re doing your best. i mean, you’re already getting pretty far with all this stuff you got. someone might be really proud of you. you know why i’m teaching you this stuff, right?”

“Y-yeah, I know.” Alphys weakly twirled the pen between her index and middle finger, and turned back at him. “You want me to assert myself more.”

“actually,” Sans slowly raised his tone. “i’m trying to see how you’d react to people trying to get to you or take advantage of you or anything, you know, for their benefit.” Sans pauses. His bony brow lowered. “frisk is a good human.” At this moment, Alphys had an idea of what Sans was really up to, even before he continued in a faux-jovial tone. “there’s lots of good humans out here, no joke. but there’s plenty of bad ones. you know…bad ones who try to pretend they’re good ones. to trick you into trusting them, so they can stab you in the back when you let your guard down.” He paused again, before resuming in a faintly mocking tone. “those humans in your team seem friendly enough. who knows, maybe they’re aren’t like those. but maybe they are. you get what i’m saying right?”

Alphys was concerned. Sans made no secret of his general distrust of humans since they’ve reached the surface. Even with Frisk’s and her allies’ efforts for peace, Sans still never really faltered. He doesn’t even talk to the human kids that began attending Toriel’s school. They both read and watched a lot of… stuff about it since reaching the surface.

She just didn’t know if he had turned worse in this regard. Especially since the recent vandalism at the school, and the picketing of her own institute’s opening which the human students’ parents had attended to. Months later and the dust still hasn’t cleared. She had witnessed Sans say to Frisk’s and the other allied humans’ faces, quote on quote: ‘They’d kill us all if they could.’

Recalling all of this, Alphys sighed. She somehow guessed that Sans also knew what she was thinking. She locked her eyes onto him with a concerned frown, and earnestly shook her head. “I trust them, Sans,” she stated, still frowning, before loosening up slightly. “I understand how you feel, but we know the people in this team don’t have any bad intentions. I trust them and they trust me. They’re loyal. They would never come to harm me.”

Sans simply looked at her. His grin unchanging, but his expression otherwise unreadable, as if he was trying to stare right through her. He stood up straight, and Alphys swore that some of her confidence dropped.

“well, truth is, i came by to ask if this belonged to anyone here.” Sans exited the room and appeared to reach for something. Alphys looked puzzled at this. Then, she found the magic that bound her body together churn when she looked at the lighting rod sans held in his hands.

“found it on a hill, saw your car, saw your raincoat, and now you’re looking a bit more fidgety today. what do ya think could’ve happened?”

Alphys started to try and breathe took a moment to process all the information and the little obvious clues that Sans picked up (probably by stalking… she shuddered lightly). She then decided to feign annoyance. “Is this a trick question? Why are you asking the one person you know is responsible, their opinion on who else could be responsible?”

Sans blinked casually. He hums. “because anyone could try to bluff about it. try to pretend they’re innocent. your honesty’s really doing good after everything that happened back in the underground… but you’re probably a better liar than you think. another thing, too; makes sense that you’re probably gonna need stronger magic to defend yourself against these humans who like you that much, right?”

Alphys turned away from Sans. He closed his eyes in sympathy. “listen. no one’s gonna judge you for what you’re doing right now. not for any reason, really. let’s forget about all that and let’s talk about physics, alright? c’mon.” he said in sincerity, and Alphys then paid attention. “thing is… this powerful electromagnetic business is some heavy stuff. not that i would know since i don’t have electric magic, but you can end up doing something that’s probably gonna break physics, and, well, screw you up immensely. you got a headache from that stuff too, didn’t you?”

Alphys gently rubbed her side of her head. It still hurt a little, now that he mentioned it.

“well, you’re probably gonna get something worse from sniffing around with physics like that.” He paused and turned to his side, before turning back at her. “… alright, this is gonna sound kinda sappy. but if you’re having real trouble with this kind of thing, you come talk to me about it.”

Alphys looked up at him, and saw him with eyes of friendliness. “Really?” she asked calmly.

“sure,” Sans affirmed. He stood there for a few moments, taking the time to pull out a comb and brush the top of his skull. “hey, speaking of which,” he began to say. “you gonna go to the frisk’s announcement today? i hear it’s soon.”

“The announcement…” Alphys mumbled absentmindedly. She suddenly shot up from her seat and gasped sharply. “THE ANNOUNCEMENT, OH MY GOSH!! I!! I completely forgot about it, holy CRAP?!!” Alphys gripped her head and grunted loudly in frustration.

“hey, hey it’s okay,” Sans tried to comfort. “we forget things sometimes.” Sans shrugged at no one in particular. “don’t sweat it. you still gonna come?”

“Ah, Y-y-yeah, sure…” she told him.

“alright then,” Sans winked with his left eye at her. “i’ll see you there, doc.”

“Okay…” Alphys turned around to gather her things before heading out, then suddenly recoiled. “Wait, Sans,” she turned around and held a finger up. “I’m not a doctor any…more…” she lowered her arm to find no one at the door of her office.

Alphys let out a sigh. She quickly wrote a memo to Bolt, telling him that she had to be somewhere important and she won’t be there for the afternoon, and to tell the rest of her team, knowing fully well how fast he worked to manage her change in schedule for the team’s sake. Alphys at least was glad she remembered to do that. After all this time, she was still forgetful. Still late. Still… weak.

As she walked out of her office, she remembered her mistakes. She walked through the office hallways, and she remembered the true lab. She walked past the security booth, and she remembered when the incidents started. She entered the reception area and remembered the false promises. She found the Froggit from earlier now soaked and confused inside the fountain. She remembered Reaper Bird.

The humans put their trust and love into Alphys, and she was likely to let them down as well. Sans got something wrong; she would actually the one to betray them first. How would they react then? Humans aren’t easily forgiving, and sometimes, she doesn’t blame them in the slightest. A small part of her told her that she would think they’d feel partly justified in hating her, instead of all the other monsters. That she was the one who truly deserved the hatred, as opposed to the other monsters. It would be a noble sacrifice on her part.

She tried to remember further mistakes. Her headache was back. She blinked for a few moments, and decided it wasn’t worth it. She shouldn’t put herself in pain for her past. Everyone told her she needed to move along and embrace the future, and that’s what she was going to do… no matter how much more empty she’s been feeling lately. No matter how much she feels as if something was missing.

As she drove off to city hall, Alphys wondered if she could ever call herself “Doctor” once again.

**Author's Note:**

> I probably got quite a lot of the science wrong... But with a universe where magic exists, I think I can get a little leeway. Still, I should explain how a monster with a magic physical form can get migraines... That’s important!
> 
> Anyway, let’s see if this story will go anywhere. I really wanted to let this idea out somehow. There will probably be a few more characters to come in the tags.


End file.
